The State Board of Elections will not allow Chapel Hill to dole out “rescue funds” for candidates participating in the town’s taxpayer-financed election campaign program this fall. Daren Bakst, John Locke Foundation Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies, urged the state board to block the rescue funds in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling such rescue funds unconstitutional. Bakst discussed the Chapel Hill case with Rick and Donna Martinez this week on WPTF Radio. Bakst recently joined about a dozen other lawyers for a Federalist Society/Liberty Fund colloquium in Charlotte titled “The Federalists, the Anti-Federalists, and the Constitution They Created.” Roy Cordato, Vice President for Research and Resident Scholar, discussed the Obama “jobs plan” and the Solyndra solar panel fiasco during his latest appearance with Chad Adams on WLTT Radio. Bloomberg View published this week an editorial about the Obama administration’s decision to back off proposed tightening of ground-level ozone restrictions. Cordato had helped the editorial writer prepare that piece. Michael Sanera, Director of Research and Local Government Studies, released his latest report questioning a North Carolina county’s proposed sales-tax increase. In this case, Sanera contends Buncombe County commissioners and the local community college president are trying to hoodwink voters by promising that new sales-tax revenue would pay for “job-creating” capital projects at the college campus. The Mountain XPress and Lincoln Tribune highlighted Sanera’s findings. Sanera also traveled to Newland for an hourlong presentation on the U.S. Constitution for all Avery County High School seniors. The Asheville Tribune recently reported about a Buncombe County school board member’s reliance on the “Checklist for School Boards” developed by Terry Stoops, Director of Education Studies. Northern Vance High School’s “Viking Vision” also cited Stoops in a brief article about efforts to lengthen the public school day. The Houma Courier published a column from Fergus Hodgson, Director of Fiscal Policy Studies, on Syrian trade sanctions.